Value sales of meat falling in supermarkets

Value sales of meat, fish and poultry in UK supermarkets dropped 3.2% year-on-year in the four weeks to 23 May 2015, according to Nielsen figures.

Overall value food sales for the period fell 0.5%, while growing 0.5% in volume terms.

Nielsen attributed the drop in fresh food value sales to commodity price falls, good harvests and price cuts by retailers, and expected this to continue for some time.

Mike Watkins, Nielsen’s UK head of retailer and business insight, said: “Retailers continue to use price cuts and promotions to stimulate sales, which is helping to maintain shop price deflation, and we see little evidence to suggest that prices will rise in the near future.

“With many food retailers still using price cuts to attract new shoppers, this is lowering the cost of the weekly shop and so the overall CPI figure in the UK. Deflation and price-led competition will continue to be a key driver of sales growth for some time yet.”

According to a recent British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Nielsen report, food prices dropped 1.9% in May, the fifth consecutive month of drops.

Helen Dickinson, BRC director general, said: “Food prices remained at their record low for a third consecutive month, with low priced fresh food helping to keep prices down. We’ve now had five consecutive months of food prices falling and while ambient saw a small rise, fresh food hit a new record low.”